A French appeals court has cleared the way for a writer who wants to continue the story of Les Misérables.

After a seven-year legal battle with heirs of Victor Hugo, author François Cérésa has been given the go-ahead to publish two sequels to the classic story.

Hugo's heirs had sought to ban publication and asked for $1.1 million in damages in their first lawsuit in 2001.

They claimed the sequels constituted an offence against the moral rights of the 19th-century author and twisted Hugo's original story.

In the lower courts, Hugo's heirs won an injunction against the sequels, but the publisher of Cérésa's books pursued the case to higher courts. The publisher argued the attempt to block the novels contravened the principle of freedom of expression.

On Friday, an appeals court in Paris ruled that Hugo's novel was in the public domain, and Cérésa was therefore free to invent a sequel.

Cérésa's books, Cosette or The Time of Illusions and Marius or The Fugitive, follow the lives of Cosette, the adopted daughter of Les Misérables hero Jean Valjean, and of her lover, Marius.

The original classic, published in 1862, is about the ex-convict Valjean, who turns his life around and becomes a benefactor to others despite the persecution of police officer Javert.

It has been turned into films and a successful stage musical.